It has become increasingly clear on marine VHF radio channels that channel 16, being both used for a hailing channel and an emergency communication channel is so overcrowded that federal authorities have considered mandating the utilization of an alternative channel, such as channel 9, as the hailing channel, thereby to leave the emergency channel, channel 16, free of interference.
The reason for the authorization of an alternative hailing channel stems from the incessant usage of channel 16 for vessels to hail other vessels or for the use of this channel for a non-essential traffic. The situation has become so intolerable that the federally mandated requirement to monitor channel 16 is largely ignored in practice. There have been suggestions that other channels be utilized which are dedicated to hailing alone. However one of the problems with such a suggestion is that most present VHF transceivers do not have a dual watch capability. As a result of this, authorization for the utilization of channel 9 as a hailing channel alone has been delayed.